"Cultivate your life - you are what you grow -
inch by inch, row by row"

Welcome!

I'm a wife, mom, long-time organic gardener and now a new organic farmer, Registered Dietitian (RD), author of the book A Dietitian's Cancer Story and website CancerRD.com. In between all that and more, I am a multiple-time cancer survivor. My website focuses on nutrition information for cancer survivors, however I began this blog in June 2007 to share a wider scope of my thoughts about life as a cancer survivor, food and nutrition, growing food, recipes, our environment, and the urgent need for developing food systems that promote health not disease, ecological sustainability, and social justice.

In January 2009, I began my blog "365DaysOfKale" to write about my passion for "all things kale" and the CancerVictoryGardens™ blog in March 2009 to help everyone touched by cancer cultivate health through a garden's nourishment of body and soul.

My Book

Personally autographed copies of the most recent printing are available at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, MI (734-662-0600, nicolasbooks.com). Proceeds are donated to research funded by The American Institute for Cancer Research (aicr.org, 1-800-843-8114).

Cancer Nutrition Websites

Disclaimer

All material on this blog is for informational purposes only. Please consult your personal physician and health care team for advice that pertains specifically to you. The author of this blog disclaims any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of the information on the blog.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Recipe - Easy Sunday Soup

Actually, this is a recipe for Italian Butter Bean Soup, but the list of ingredients is so short, easily available, and even portable that this is an easy, quick to put together, and delicious recipe that it could be called Easy Anytime Soup.

This is also a perfect recipe to double for a quick meal for a crowd (or very very hungry boys). I first had it vacationing “up north” where no one wants to spend time by cooking all afternoon. Try to use fresh sage for the best flavor. Sage is easy to grow (in fact it seems to thrive on being left alone) and can often still be used fresh even if it has been covered with snow.

Here is a case where I truly love chopping the sage into small pieces with my chef's knife, rather than getting the food processor dirty.

Gently sauté garlic in olive oil.Then put all the other ingredients in the soup pot and simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan cheese if desired. Make a meal by adding some homemade muffins and some fresh fruit. There will be plenty for a crowd, leftovers to eat all week, or to freeze for a future "fast food" meal that's made from mostly local foods.

I modified the recipe slightly this time by draining the liquid from the beans and rinsing them (hmmm, I really did not want all that sodium, sugar, and a few of the other additives). I used additional canned tomatoes to make up the liquid I threw down the sink.

I also put everything in a crock pot instead of a soup pot on the stove, so that I could head outside to get some yard work done on this beautiful bonus day that we're having in Michigan today (expected to get to the high 70's!). I sauteed the garlic in a very small pan, put all of that into the crockpot with the other ingredients, and then used some of the extra tomatoes to rinse out the pan so that I got every last little bit of garlic and olive oil into the soup.